GARY COPS INDICTED IN DRUG-RELATED INVESTIGATIONS

A Gary, Ind., patrolman and three other men have been indicted in
connection with a pair of drug-related killings, while a second Gary police
officer has been indicted on money laundering and narcotics charges,
authorities announced today.

A federal grand jury Friday returned indictments for killings in connection
with a drug conspiracy against James Ervin, 30, a Gary patrolman since
1992, and alleged drug traffickers Jay Zambrana, 39, Louis Perez, 29, and
Gabriel Benavides, whose age is unknown, said David Capp, U.S. attorney for
the Northern District of Indiana.

The men were charged in connection with the November 1998 slayings of Raul
Hurtado and Gil Nevarez, ages unknown, Capp said. The two drug dealers'
bodies were found in a burned-out car on the 7100 block of South Harvard
Avenue in Chicago.

A second Gary police officer, Luis Roman, 34, was indicted on charges of
money laundering and conspiracy to distribute cocaine and heroin, Capp said.

Ervin, Zambrana and Perez are being held without bond at the Metropolitan
Correctional Center in Chicago. Benavides is a fugitive and is believed to
be in Monterrey, Mexico, while Roman is free on bond, Capp said.

According to the indictment, Ervin was taking orders from Zambrana, the
leader of a local drug ring, when he stopped Hurtado and Nevarez as the two
were driving into Gary, intending to sell nine kilograms of cocaine.

Ervin gave the cocaine to Perez, handcuffed the victims and drove them to
the Puerto Rican Benefit Society in Gary, where Ervin and Benavides shot
them to death, the indictment stated. Ervin allegedly then took the
victims' vehicle with their bodies inside to Chicago's South Side, where he
abandoned and set fire to the car.

In a separate incident, Capp said, Ervin took $275,000 in drug money while
on duty in a marked Gary squad car in January 1999. Arrested May 7 on a
federal criminal complaint, Ervin has spent the last two months in custody.

Gary Police Chief John Roby said Ervin and Roman violated the codes
surrounding their duties as police officers.

"I felt that they had let their badge down," Roby said. "You are out there
to serve and protect, and not to serve the other side."

Roby said Ervin had been taken off patrol and put on desk duty, while Roman
had been suspended.

"Now that the indictments have been unsealed, they will be terminated,"
Roby said.